


Radio Silence

by Emanemmy12



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 17:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2740424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emanemmy12/pseuds/Emanemmy12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Repost from Tumblr. Root x Shaw prompt. After 4x05, Shaw gets home to find Root already there. She still has the bullet wounds. Shaw nurses her and asks her what's wrong with her (we saw in 4x07 that she already knew that she doesn't have the machine in her ear anymore so at some point she had told her).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Radio Silence

Shaw knew something was off even before she reached her apartment. The most recent number had been hard on the other members of the team and no one was sharing as to why. They had saved his life. Wasn’t that the point? She frowned harder as she stood in the elevator and thought about the words Finch had spoken. No matter the cost. Those words quenched her almost ever present fire. It was almost as if he expected Root to die. Harold knew something she didn’t and Shaw was determined to figure it out. 

She remembered how Root had behaved when she was tracking Simon. Eeyore was almost cheery in comparison. Shaw grunted and pulled up her phone. Tapping her way to a map, she observed the dots on the map. There was Fusco, at home and probably asleep by now. John was at a bar and Harold was back at his apartment as well. The last dot, the one that for some reason Shaw avoided searching for when it wasn’t in the city, was the closest. The light ding indicated she was on her floor and Shaw gave an impressive eye roll. She would be the one to get a visit, she thought, ignoring the part of her that slightly relaxed at knowing where Root was. Walking down the hall to her door, Shaw took out her keys and then paused to note that the door was unlocked already. With a heavy sigh, she opened the door. It was unlike Root to forget something like that. It was almost like a warning to let Shaw know that she was here. Quietly she shut the door and didn’t move to turn on the light. In the light from the windows, she could see the outline of someone sitting on the couch. There was a soft hiss of pain and Shaw gritted her jaw, the dull sense of uneasiness of before leaking back into her heart. It was a strange feeling, one that was getting louder and more clearer to Shaw, but she refused to actually put any words to the feeling. It was better to not know, what she was used to.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice. “Where are you?” The question was surprisingly not to her. Root would have turned then and smirked, some how knowing exactly where Shaw was no matter how much she tried to sneak up on her. Did she not know that Shaw was here? Eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Shaw analyzed the words and how they sounded. It came naturally for her to figure out what people meant and what facial expressions meant. She’d had to learn in order to be able to hide when undercover. Without the face that went along with the sounds, it was a bit more difficult but more than anything Root sounded sad. Root shifted and gave a small noise of pain. That did it. Shaw reached over and flicked on the light switch and Root jumped in surprise. “Sameen, I wasn’t expecting you back so soon,” came the quick response. Root’s face tried to work itself back to the smirk that Shaw was used to. 

”Shut it,” came the reply. “You’re hurt.” It was a statement and so Root could only nod. There was no denying it, especially not to Shaw. “Hold on.” There was a clack of heels as Shaw walked past the couch and towards the bathroom. Her apartment was small, but it had the essentials. Root would have normally appreciated the view as she watched the other woman walk past, but after the day she had, it was too much. She’d barely gotten away with her life and she suspected that her arm would be out of commission for some time. Root gave a small huff of air through her nose as she recalled the last time her arm had been shot. At least with Shaw she had known that she wasn’t going to be killed and it had been before the Machine had spoken to her, before she’d been granted her position. She’d been giving herself missions then, clinging to a reason to go on. It struck her how different things were, but they were also still the same. Only now there would be people who cared if she died and people she would care about losing. How ironic it was that the very thing that kept her from losing herself now was the thing she had spent her life trying to deny. It was because she cared now that once she had lured Samaritan’s agent away that Root had fought as hard to loose her as she had. The Machine had barely been able to give her anything, just short commands whenever a bullet was bound to come too close.

Her musings were interrupted as Shaw came back into view, heels off and carrying a bag of what looked to be medical supplies. Wordlessly, Root shrugged off her coat, gritting her teeth, and was surprised that gentle hands helped her to pry off her shirt, sticky with blood, the fabric almost dried into the wounds. In her mind, Sameen was almost like an angel of death. She was dressed in black and the way she moved, effortlessly and with an efficiency that was almost unnatural, made the illusion even more apparent. Root almost smiled, thinking of the poor patients that Shaw must have taken care of. Had they too thought that she was only preparing them for their ascendance to another world? Root gave a small cry of pain then, as a cotton ball soaked in something was dabbed on her sink. “Easy,” came the low instruction. “I would have used water, but this has already been out in the air so long, I don’t know if bacteria have started to grow in it already. So it’s going to sting.”

“Isn’t that something you should warn someone about first?” It was meant to be a jab, but it came out more indignant than anything else and Sameen chuckled. Root sighed and gritted her teeth, determined not to let anything else escape her. 

After a few moments past and the bits of fibers of her shirt had finally been disentangled from the bullet wounds, Shaw finally looked at the other woman. Sitting there with no shirt and gritting her teeth hard, like she could make everything alright by just sheer force of will. This wasn’t like Root. There had been worse injuries, closer calls, and Shaw wasn’t sure what made this one different. “Hey,” Eyes opened and met her own and for a moment that dull radio static cleared. Shaw shifted her position, weight resting more fully on the couch now that the doctoring was finished. “What happened out there? You never answered my questions earlier.” Root shook her head and a dull pang rang out in Shaw’s heart. If this was what it was like for everyone else all the time then she counted her luck. She wanted to reach into her chest and pull out this uncomfortableness that plagued her. But still Root did not speak. “How come you didn’t know that I was coming?”

That question startled Root and she sat back, ignoring the pain the sudden movement caused her. “What?”

”I knew you were here and you didn’t notice me till I turned the light on.” Shaw’s eyes caught the light tremble at the corner of Root’s lips and quickly sought to prevent the crying. She didn’t want to know what crying would do to her. “Is your cyber ear all out of batteries?” she joked, knowing that it was a weak joke to start. 

Root gave a small laugh anyways and it seemed to ease the current of tension in the air. “No,” Root sighed and turned her head, looking away as she answered. “that was the first thing I tried.” She turned back and looked at the dark eyes that burned into her own. As much as she longed to protect Sameen, Root knew that she deserved the truth. She’d already told Harold. But for some reason it made it all the more real to tell Shaw. Without a doubt it would make the other woman so much more jumpy around her now, itching to protect her. Root would rather herself be in danger. “She isn’t talking to me.” Shaw tilted her head, eyebrows knitting together. “Well, not entirely. I still get pieces. But it’s almost like whispers.”

There was a long pause and Root could almost feel Shaw thinking in the steady quiet in the apartment. It was so late by now that even the streets of New York were mostly quiet. A hand was placed on her thigh, a gesture so startling that Root thought she nearly imagined it. “Whispers aren’t that bad. It’s better than nothing isn’t it?” Her heart nearly broke hearing that. It must seem so silly to someone like Shaw. The parallel was unbearable. 

”Sameen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mea-“

A finger placed on her lips silenced Root and Shaw just shook her head. “It just means you have to listen harder.” It was an uncomfortable admission as it meant revealing what Shaw herself had been working on. But the way that Root gazed at her made it worth it. Sameen lifted her finger, already missing the soft warmth of those lips, and stood. “You are staying here tonight.” 

”Where?”

”Where do you think?”

”Honestly Sam, I’m not going to be on the couch I’ve just been nearly kill-” This time she was cut off with a pair of lips against her own. There wasn’t any time to revel in the gesture before Shaw tore herself away and scowled. 

”Pajamas are in the top drawer to the left. Go change and don’t touch anything. Then get to bed.” With that, she stormed off to the bathroom, muttering about needing to decontaminate. Root smiled, the most genuine one all night. Of course it was two steps forward and one step back, but progress was progress. She stood and walked to the bedroom, her heart feeling more alive than it had in weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> http://waitingintheflowers.tumblr.com/ask My ask is open if anyone wants to send prompts. Thank you for reading. <3


End file.
